A Pick for the Ages, Literally: Lenoard Cohen’s “You Want it Darker”

Leonard Cohen cures the lyrical banality of our age while giving a robust middle finger to the idea that music is by, for, and about the young. On this point, I am reminded of a lyric from Beverly Kenney’s “I Hate Rock and Roll”: “What is the answer to a teenaged prayer? Frankly speaking, I don’t care, I don’t care.” This cat is 82 years old! “You Want It Darker” is a fantastic album. I would buy it for everyone I know, if I could. Note to self: sell lots of books, so you can. Check out the Pitchfork review.

Here’s a few lyrics to sample the album:

Magnified, sanctified, be thy holy name

Vilified, crucified, in the human frame

A million candles burning for the help that never came

You want it darker

***

There’s a lover in the story

But the story’s still the same

There’s a lullaby for suffering

And a paradox to blame

But it’s written in the scriptures

And it’s not some idle claim

You want it darker

We kill the flame

***

They’re lining up the prisoners

And the guards are taking aim

I struggled with some demons

They were middle class and tame

I didn’t know I had permission to murder and to maim

WTF: “demons–They were middle class and tame.” This line alone offers a lyrical resonance that deeply implicates the experience of class consciousness as such is mistaken for a universal existential crisis, thereby reading some of the cultural crisis beads of our time.

I am just in awe and feel wicked lucky we have yet another Cohen album–blessed are we for the Gods of music.